Today's high temp was still 80 degrees, but that hasn't stopped us from taking advantage of some of our favorite cooler-weather comfort foods.
Because we were in DC this weekend, and therefore stopped by Aldi's, we thought it prudent to stock up on some canned goods. In particular, beans and tomatoes, as well as inexpensive shredded cheese. Why? Two words for you: Mexican Casserole. Ahhhh. We hadn't had it in several months (being as it's neither the cheapest nor the healthiest item on our menu), but boy, was it good.
Similarly, tonight (having been informed that work is not in need of my services this afternoon), I'm making Asparagus Risotto. I suppose the asparagus makes it technically more of a spring/summer dish, but the its warm, comforting creaminess, and the fact that we were originally introduced to the mushroom version in cool weather (back in Iowa City, when I was working nights), always makes me feel cozy.
We've also been doing more baking than usual! Last week we made cookies, made all the more (strangely) delicious by the substitution of lard for butter. Not exactly what you'd expect to read on this blog, I know, but the farmer we get our eggs and milk and butter from also sells lard, and we know from visiting that his hogs are humanely kept and humanely slaughtered. Add that to the fact that farm-fresh butter, while delectable and an absolutely incomparable cooking (and eating!) fat, is $10 a pound, and we needed to find a cheaper substitute for things like baking and greasing pans.
Enter lard. It fries things to an impeccable crisp, and pans greased with it slickly release their contents without a struggle. The cookies are crispy yet tender, with no discernible change in flavor. That said, after we'd had the lard for a bit it started to acquire a somewhat...bacon-y fragrance, so from now on, that batch at least is relegated only to savory foods.
Anyway, we also had a bunch of ripe bananas to use up from when I was gone, since Matt was only consuming half of our normal quantity. (Who knows why that concept escaped me while I was shopping!) So we made up a double batch of our favorite banana bread, baking one regular-sized loaf, one tiny loaf, and twelve muffins. Delicious!
Another product whose consumption fell last week was, unfortunately, milk. Having had the experience of running out of the milk we've come to love, our reaction has been to err on the opposite side of having too much. This means that occasionally we're left creaming our coffee with something a little tangier than we might choose. Having noticed this to be the case this morning, how could I resist whipping up a batch of this tantalizingly pictured Sour Milk Cake? Especially having learned my lesson about using it as a soup base. We're also planning to make pancakes for breakfast tomorrow (since we don't want to pour the milk on our bulgur), which will then leave us another five cups of slightly sour milk to use creatively. Ah, well, it's happened to us before.
Because we were in DC this weekend, and therefore stopped by Aldi's, we thought it prudent to stock up on some canned goods. In particular, beans and tomatoes, as well as inexpensive shredded cheese. Why? Two words for you: Mexican Casserole. Ahhhh. We hadn't had it in several months (being as it's neither the cheapest nor the healthiest item on our menu), but boy, was it good.
Similarly, tonight (having been informed that work is not in need of my services this afternoon), I'm making Asparagus Risotto. I suppose the asparagus makes it technically more of a spring/summer dish, but the its warm, comforting creaminess, and the fact that we were originally introduced to the mushroom version in cool weather (back in Iowa City, when I was working nights), always makes me feel cozy.
We've also been doing more baking than usual! Last week we made cookies, made all the more (strangely) delicious by the substitution of lard for butter. Not exactly what you'd expect to read on this blog, I know, but the farmer we get our eggs and milk and butter from also sells lard, and we know from visiting that his hogs are humanely kept and humanely slaughtered. Add that to the fact that farm-fresh butter, while delectable and an absolutely incomparable cooking (and eating!) fat, is $10 a pound, and we needed to find a cheaper substitute for things like baking and greasing pans.
Enter lard. It fries things to an impeccable crisp, and pans greased with it slickly release their contents without a struggle. The cookies are crispy yet tender, with no discernible change in flavor. That said, after we'd had the lard for a bit it started to acquire a somewhat...bacon-y fragrance, so from now on, that batch at least is relegated only to savory foods.
Anyway, we also had a bunch of ripe bananas to use up from when I was gone, since Matt was only consuming half of our normal quantity. (Who knows why that concept escaped me while I was shopping!) So we made up a double batch of our favorite banana bread, baking one regular-sized loaf, one tiny loaf, and twelve muffins. Delicious!
Another product whose consumption fell last week was, unfortunately, milk. Having had the experience of running out of the milk we've come to love, our reaction has been to err on the opposite side of having too much. This means that occasionally we're left creaming our coffee with something a little tangier than we might choose. Having noticed this to be the case this morning, how could I resist whipping up a batch of this tantalizingly pictured Sour Milk Cake? Especially having learned my lesson about using it as a soup base. We're also planning to make pancakes for breakfast tomorrow (since we don't want to pour the milk on our bulgur), which will then leave us another five cups of slightly sour milk to use creatively. Ah, well, it's happened to us before.
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